Up to Hollis - July 29,2015

Ride Report

Wednesday July 29 Up to Hollis

Long Ride

Riders(18): Bob Apsler, Edie Baxter, Jack Donohue, Curt Dudley-Marling, Bernie Flynn, Richard Fortier, Dmitry Gorenburg, Tim Jacoby, Herb Kavet, Lindy King, Rick Lawrence, Fred Newton, Julianne North, Steve Page, Butch Pemstein, Rich Taylor, Patrick Ward, Cas Zelny

On a hot summer’s day a group of energetic Wednesday Wheeler riders converged at the Rail Trail in Groton.  There were reports of traffic delays from many directions so we briefly waited for those stuck in traffic.  The long and short routes were the same until we got to Monument Square in Hollis and the short riders decided to ride as a group and the long riders departed using human arrows.  We departed and soon were coasting down Long Hill Road onto Hill Road (where there is no hill).  We continued through Pepperell up Mason Road and probably the longest climb of the day and regrouped except for Julianne who rode in circles so as not to feel the ill effects of lactic acid in her muscles.  Soon thereafter we rode into New Hampshire amid the tree-covered roads and Ridge Road - the only dirt road on the ride.  Soon we were in Monument Square were everyone took refuge in the shade, purchased cool drinks at the market and sought out the facilities at the town hall.  Thanks to Richard for buying a gallon of water and sharing with everyone.  We waited some time until Patrick called Ilkka to see where the short riders were.  Lindy convinced everyone to start riding again and that we did on the gentle downhill on Wheeler Rd (aptly named).  After some climbing we crossed over Rt. 130 onto Rideout Rd. where we ran into Bob Wolf riding in the opposite direction.  Soon thereafter we regrouped and traveled together to the only traffic lights on the route.  It was nice that most of the roads were shady and there were finally some downhill sections.  Finally, we climbed up Common St. and arrived back in Groton Center.  Many riders opted for lunch at Filho’s Cuccina and I believe a good time was had by all!

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Many thanks to Ilkka Suvanto for offering to lead the short ride option and to Jack Donohue for sweeping the long ride and being our intrepid roving photographer.  Follow the link to the CRW Facebook page for pictures.  My favorite is the one of Patrick, Bernie and Rick all wearing different CRW jerseys!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.375360349319215.1073741844.162728697249049&type=1

Ride report by Lindy King.

Short Ride

Riders(7): Anker Berg-Sonne, Elissa Brown, Janet Miller, Eli Post, Chris Schuch, Jacque Smith, Ilkka Suvanto

Seven of us left shortly after the larger, long ride group. We stayed together for a leisurely 26 miles at 12.3 mph average on quiet country roads. Uphills were slow but shaded and downhills fast and breezy at 30.6 mph maximum. After a comfort break at Hollis some of us rode hard for a fast 3 mile downhill run. Partly due to the heat and humidity we voted at mile 18 to take the Nashua River Rail Trail with no hills back to our cars. Smart decision. Great ride. Good lunch.

Ride Report by Ilkka Suvanto

Tour of Carlisle, Chelmsford, and Concord - July 22, 2015

Ride Report

Wed, July 22, 2015, Tour of Carlisle, Chelmsford, and Concord

Long Ride Report – Jack Donohue

Riders(30): Annemarie Altman, Bob Anderson, Jack Donohue, Curt Dudley-Marley, Richard Fortier, Dmitry Gorenburg, Paul Greco, Ken Hablow, Kathy Horvath, Frank Hubbard, Dom Jorge, Jim Kant, Herb Kavet, Rick Lawrence, Anne Lee, Robyn Maislin, Steve Maislin, Barbara Martin, Bob McCarty, Janet Miller, Jack Mroczkowski, Ann Northup, Paula O'Sullivan, Butch Pemstein, Karen Saltus, Chris Schuch, Francine Sparks, Rich Taylor, Patrick Ward, Bob Wolf

The weather was absolutely perfect, a welcome relief from the heat and humidity of the preceding few days. At the start, I made the bold claim that I would observe the official Wheeler speed of 13 mph average.  I sensed some were chafing at the bit, and since we started out with a large group, I gave Ken my blessing to form a breakaway group. So Ken and his merry band took off, relieving me of performance anxiety. We did encounter them again at Great Brook Farm, but they didn't want to participate in the photo shoot and sped away not to be seen again.

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We were greeted with some nice stretches of brand new pavement. Carlisle in particular seems to be making up for years of neglect with many of my favorite roads getting a makeover, like Curve Street, which took quite a beating over the winter. We had a brief failure to communicate since I had turned off the sound on my cell phone at a wedding and forgot to turn it back on.  So Butch attempted to alert me to a mechanical problem in vain.  Since Butch was conspicuous by his absence we waited, and not much later the missing riders showed. Jack M. gets the prize for having the oldest jersey.  I still may have one like that, but I haven't seen it in a couple of decades. 

Short Ride Report – Jacque Smith

Riders(5): Bob Armstrong, Carol Anderson, Cindy Bernstein, Eli Post, Jacque Smith

Four riders had a delightful, uneventful ride of 22 miles. Then, we had the pleasure of a wonderful lunch at Mike's house joined with the longer riders. Every ride should be this good and with such a small group no arrows or sweep were required.

Organizer Report – Mike Hanauer

Organizers: Mike Hanauer, Edie Baxter

The weather was perfect, but the neighborhood roads were a mess. Thanks to all for the tolerance.

Huge quantities of edibles were eaten and apparently enjoyed or even reveled. BBQ, rice, bean, salads, sausage, and lots more. I did notice that sweet BBQ sauce is much more popular than hot -- we are a cool group. For drink, the banana-lemon smoothies were again most appealing without the peal.

This event of events turned out to be a wonderful team effort, and I want to thank the ride leaders, those that helped with food prep, cleanup and supplies, and all for the wonderful dishes and personalities.

Ride from Bolton – July 16, 2015

RIDE REPORT

July 16, 2015 – Short (not too hilly) Ride from Bolton.  Leader:   John Nilsson

Attending:  leader, Chris Schuch, Marie Keutmann, Ellen Gugel, Cindy Bernstein

We left the Forbush Mill parking lot on time (as advertised) at 10:30 with five intrepid riders on a perfect day.  We saw cute young ponies, a defunct college (Atlantic Union in Lancaster), crossed the Nashua River several times, crossed too many RR lines (they also go for flat runs), saw a strange blinking Stop sign, and many other exotic sights.  We had no mechanical issues or flats, and after our return we enjoyed a  lunch at Bolton Orchards.

Around Boston - July 10, 2015

RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, July 10, 2015, Around Boston
Ride Leaders:  Tom Allen and Dick Harter
32 & 41 miles, 10:00 am start from Larz Anderson Park, Brookline.

Riders - 32 mi (10):  Dick, Betty Hoffman, Nancy Smith, Brooke Stevens, Peggy Gelin, Jon Clardy, Paul Greco, Gary Smiley, Maurice King and David Wean.

Riders 41 mi (13): Tom, Don Buchholtz, Butch Pemstein (Great to see you again Butch!), Greg Stathis, Steve Robins, Elsa and Tom Lawrence, Barbara Martin, Elissa Brown, Jim Whinfield, Lei Wang, Alan Lazar, and Everett Briggs.

The "Around Boston" routes offered plenty of riding variety and some new scenery and experience to almost all of our riders. The 2 groups (longs and shorts - riding distance, not pant length) set off separately despite having the same routing for the first 7 miles. 12 riders followed the leader of the 41 mile ride out of the parking area at Larz Anderson and made their way to West Roxbury Parkway, which featured several large rotaries and climbed its way up Bellevue hill. This was just a preview of some more climbing to come.

From there it was an extended downhill as we breezed through the Stony Brook Reservation, a large semi-wild area in the middle of Boston. We then visited the Readville section of Hyde Park, the home of former Mayor Menino and the home of yours truly on his first relocation to Massachusetts back in 1967. Then more climbing as we entered the Blue Hills area. We rolled along very well and didn't bog down on the hills.

After a rest and bathroom stop at Houghton's Pond (where one rider expressed her disappointment that we hadn't planned for a dip – skinny or otherwise) we did a bit more climbing to reach the overlook which is capable of providing a spectacular view of the Boston skyline but was rather hazy when we got there. (Photos were taken.)

Then the descent into Quincy and Milton where we first encountered some significant traffic before finding some more residential roads. Then picking up the Neponset River trail we re-entered Boston city limits and made a pause in Dorchester where Everett pointed out the painted gas storage tank and explained that the blue stripe contained a profile of Ho Chi Minh as an anti war protest on the part of the artist.

After pedaling past U Mass and the JFK Library (where we were forced to detour around an interruption in the Harbor Walk that's been there for a year) we rode along the South Boston beach front and on to the "Innovation District". Another detour forced by the massive construction projects there. We did stop for more photos at the Federal Courthouse. We then tackled the streets of Boston following the harbor the best the streets would allow and crossed over to Charlestown where we passed under the Zakim bridge to loop back along the Charles and find the lunch stop.

Lunch was quite good, but several of us needed a McDonalds schedule more than a gourmet menu. (Especially the ride leader, who had a medical appointment to keep.) So, with several riders already planning to ride directly to their respective abodes, the leader bailed out and left finding the way back to cars to the resourcefulness of others. (Greg Stathis reports "The four riders made it back to the cars in good time under Jim’s competent guidance.")

Thanks to Everett for sweeping and to the numerous volunteer arrows who seldom needed to be asked (an were often unnecessary as we kept well together).

The RideWithGPS recording is here. Photos are embedded in it, so have a look.

Tom Allen

Boston Short Loop Report

Ten riders set out on the short loop, eliminating the 10-mile jaunt into the Blue Hills.  We enjoyed the Boston Parkway roads, the Neponset River Trail, the Harborwalk , and the Paul Dudley White trail along the Charles.   And we were, briefly, challenged by a traffic light that wouldn’t change, a road on the route with a fierce do not enter sign, the endless construction around UMass and the JFK library, and the gps that fell asleep after eating too much at Audubon Boston.  We managed to stay together through the ever-changing Seaport District and the tourist-filled Boston waterfront.  We gave thanks to Nancy Smith for sweeping and to David Wean for getting us from the Muddy River to Jamaica Pond while my gps was snoozing.  

Dick Harter

Maine Seacoast Ride - Thursday July 2, 2015

RIDE REPORT

Thursday July 2, 2015, Maine Seacoast Ride (attendance below)

It was a great day for a  coastal ride in southern Maine.  The temperature was perfect with a steady breeze, shining sun and glistening seas.  Sixteen wheelers started from Joanne’s house in Portsmouth and headed out over the newly renovated Memorial Bridge.  We headed north on rt 103 with a quick stop at Fort McClary, active during WW2.  According to Wikipedia,  the fort is s a former defensive structure on the southern coast of Maine at Kittery Point. Built at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, it was used primarily throughout the 19th century to protect approaches to the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and its U.S. naval shipyard.  We then continued up the north  for another brief stop at Hartely Mason Reserve which is a seaside park with amazing views of the ocean and York Harbor beach.  Hartley W. Mason donated this land to the Town of York specifying that the view be saved for all time.  Then onto Nubble Light http://nubblelight.org/ .  Here’s the wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Neddick_Light.  The group then split in 2 with one group going onto Ogunquit, ME, led by Ken Hablow, and the other group heading back to Portmsouth, led by Joanne.  No mechanical issues or anything else for that matter.  I’d like to thank the sweep, Selig Saltzman.  After the ride we met back at Joanne’s for a backyard soiree.  The salad contributions were delicious as were all the other contributions (i.e. cheesecake)….  Thanks to Dale Fergusoh and Rich Taylor who helped figure out the regulator procedure for the grill…. 

By Joanne Samuels

After leaving Nubble Light with the main group eight of us headed north on Shore Road through York Cliffs and Cape Neddick to Ogunquit with a pass through Perkins Cove. The road closer to Ogunquit is a fun ride being windy and rolling. After a stop in Ogunquit to re-fuel we headed back down Shore Road and rejoined the short ride return route which took us inland and through York center. Since there was a south wind the inland route gave us more protection. We kept up a nice pace and all stayed together with no need for human arrows. We got back to Joanne’s house in plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful spread of salads provided by several of the riders and Joanne’s grill.

By Ken Hablow

You are invited to view Russ Keene's photo album: Joanne's WW'lrs July 2, 2015